Old Habits
by strawberryTala
Summary: Shuzo is worried that Rin or Yugo doesn't have enough clothes, with how often they're wearing each others stuff. But maybe it's a little more simple than he thought. (featuring cute appleshipping)


It takes Shuzo a while to notice, but once he did he can't stop thinking about it.

It had been close to 3 months since Yuzu and Yuya came back, bringing three kids with their faces along with them and into the Hiiragi and Sakaki households.

It had been a struggle, making room for four more kids, since Ruri had a big brother she certainly wasn't getting separated from if he had any say in the matter but the problems didn't come from to little space or a lack of money.

Reiji Akaba had stated that Leo Corporation would stand for the building costs, no complaints allowed. The construction had to be the quickest he'd ever witnessed, and so Shuzo now had four beautiful daughters and a wonderful son living under his roof and he couldn't be happier.

It was that his new wonderful children came from very different upbringings and making adjustments accordingly was difficult.

He'd quickly learned baby steps was the best way to go, one thing at a time and be patient. Talking things out worked, but sometimes it was best to let them take it at their own pace. Sometimes there wasn't a problem at all and he'd worried himself into a frenzy for old hard-to-break habits or quirks.

Which led him to his current dilemma.

Rin, who was currently in the middle of a duel with Yuzu, was the current source of his worries. Beyond the eternal plight of who to cheer for when his kids dueled each other, he was more focused on what she was wearing.

Now, Shuzo had made sure that all of the kids had more than enough clothes to wear, and while Rin was hesitant to choose anything in the beginning, still was, but getting better, that wasn't what worried him.

It was because he was almost 90 percent sure the t-shirt she was wearing, dark blue with a white hem and sleeves, belonged to Yugo.

That, by itself, wouldn't be a big problem either, even if his fatherly instincts wanted to kick in at the implications. But coupled with Rin's, odd choices when clothes shopping, it troubled him.

Rin didn't own anything to form fitting, or overly girly or colourful clothes except some pyjama shirts in pink and purple. She didn't seem to want to wear that sort of stuff, which was fine, if it weren't also for the regularity that the two wore each others clothes.

Shuzo glanced over at Yugo, standing beside him enthusiastically cheering both Yuzu and Rin on at the same time. He was wearing a cream coloured hoodie with cartoony, red apples on it, lining the lower half. One of the first things Shuzo had bought for Rin.

He clearly remember her gazing nervously around the large store they were in, her stack in the shopping cart a lot smaller than the others, until she caught sight of that particular hoodie. Yuzu had walked up and asked if she liked it, Rin taking a moment to answer, fingers running over the fabric and feeling the inside of it, before nodding and hesitantly asking if they could buy it.

Shuzo had responded with a cheerful 'of course!' and they'd put it in the cart, Rin now a little more willing to put in more.

He'd seen Yugo wearing shirts or hoodies he swore he had bought for Rin more times than he could count now, it seemed like he wore her stuff more often. And it fit both of them.

They weren't that different in build, he was actually pretty sure Yugo was slimmer than Rin now, who thanks to a healthy and constant diet, had started to build toned muscles. Shuzo had seen her lift her friend up with realative ease.

Then there was the regularity and flippant attitude both had about it. When he'd tried to casually ask Rin if she was wearing Yugo's shirt, she'd just blinked at him, looked down at the shirt she was wearing before looking up again and replying 'Yeah...?'

It had been nothing defensive about it, just confusion that he'd even asked in the first place.

He'd even brought it up with Yoko, asking carefully if Yugo didn't have enough clothes. Yoko had bought all of them a bunch of clothes in her excitement, so she doubted it. When he told her everything he'd noticed, she had laughed and said he was probably just being paranoid.

At least until she called one day, saying that Yugo had walked into the kitchen that morning wearing a purple nightgown with a witch riding a broom on it and plaid pyjama pants. The pants were his, the shirt not. He hadn't responded to any teasing questions from Yuri with anything but casualness and slight confusion.

'…Well,' Shuzo had said in response, 'I was wondering where that pyjama shirt had gone off to.'

They had both decided to talk to them separately. It may very well be nothing, but Shuzo didn't want his new precious daughter to miss anything that couldn't easily be fixed. If she was short on clothes, he wanted to rectify it immediately.

He'd been sitting at the dining table, grumbling over how to bring it up when Rin had walked into the room. He'd called out to her before he could think about it. Finding time to talk about private topics was harder to do with such a full house.

"Oh Rin! Are you busy?" Shuzo called out in the direction to the kitchen.

Rin poked her head out of the doorway, glass of water in hand. "Not right now. Did you need something?" She walked over, taking a sip. She had knee-length shorts, a tank top and a white hoodie with an open zipper on. Shuzo was pretty sure Yugo had been wearing that hoodie when he'd been over a few days ago.

"I was wondering if we could talk about something." Shuzo said. Tread carefully, he told himself. Rin was prideful and a bit too quick to clam up.

She quirked an eyebrow, but pulled out a chair and sat down, facing him and nodding at him to continue.

Right. Should he dance around the issue and ease into it or just charge headfirst?

He decided on a mix between the two.

"Rin, do you have enough clothes?"

Rin blinked at him, confused, pasuing where she was about to take another gulp of water.

"I do. I've got more clothes the last couple months than I've owned my entire life." She turned a bit hesitant at the last part, glancing away. "Thanks, you know, for that. For all this"

Shuzo smiled. "No need to thank me, Rin. You're a part of the family now." Rin cracked an embarrassed smile at that.

"I was just worried, since I've noticed recently..." Rin made a questioning noise, gulping down some water. "You and Yugo seems to wear each others clothes all the time, but as long as you're not doing anything dangerous and are safe, it's fine..."

Shuzo barely finished his sentence before Rin sprayed water everywhere and started spluttering and coughing. "Woah woah woah! Rin are you okay?!"

He reached from some tissues and gave her to wipe her mouth with. She was coughing up a lung and water had gotten everywhere. When she finally calmed down somewhat she looked up at him with a flabbergasted expression.

"Safe what now?! What the hell are you talking about?" Rin shouted, hand clenched on the table, hunched over and still breathing hard.

Shuzo held up his hands, trying to calm Rin down. "A father worries about his children! I've just noticed you're wearing each others things so often, I was worried something was wrong! If it isn't i'm sorry for jumping to conclusions, but with how you shop for clothes and how casual you both are about this, I was starting to wonder..."

Rin stares at him for a moment, confused before realisation dawns on her face. "Oh." She ran her hand through her hair roughly. "Yeah, yeah that'd be weird, wouldn't it. Damnit, I didn't even notice." Rin muttered, dragging her hand down her face, other hand tapping on the table with stubby nails.

Shuzo was growing worried at her words. "Rin, if you don't want to talk about it I won't make you."

Rin shook her head. "No no, it's nothing special, really. Just a bit, hard to explain?" She took a breath, letting it out with a whoosh sound.

"You know how me and Yugo grew up in an orphanage?" Shuzo nodded. "Well, we left when we were about, 12 I think? To live on our own, the place was starting to get stuffy and restricting, but that's not the relevant part."

Shuzo frowned, heart twisting at the thought of children so small deciding to live by themselves, but he sat quietly and listened.

"So you know, living in the Commons isn't easy. No money for anything very decent, and most of the money we got went to either decent food sometimes or, mostly, D-Wheel parts." Rin's expression twisted a little at the last part, but she continued on, fiddling with her fingers.

"Good clothes was a rarity. Our riding suits was the nicest stuff we owned there. We didn't have much to chose from and being picky wasn't an option so..."

Oh. Shuzo was starting to understand now.

Rin shrugged lightly, finally meeting his gaze again. "We wore what the other wore. There wasn't really 'my clothes' or 'Yugo's clothes', it all blended together pretty fast. Whenever we tried we'd eventually get confused over which shirt or pant belonged to whom." Rin said.

She tapped her foot on the chair leg. "It never really occurred to me too stop, I guess? I don't see the point and I don't think Yugo does either. It's just clothes. We've shared for so long, getting weird about it now doesn't make sense."

Shuzo slowly nodded. "I understand, I think." He smiled. "I don't mind if you two continue to do this, but I'm glad you told me."

Rin smiled back, scratching her head. "I didn't even realise it was odd until Yuzu started to get weird about it. She gets so agitated all the time over nothing, but I didn't think you'd get worried about it too."

Shuzo had to laugh at that. He couldn't help thinking that Yuzu was more flustered over how casually close Rin and Yugo.

Rin looked at the time, eyes widening and started to stand up. "I've gotta go. Yugo's probably waiting for me, we were supposed to meet at the park by now."

Shuzo gave her a smile and saw her off at the door, reminding her to send him a message if she stayed over at the Sakaki's. She waved goodbye before running down the street and Shuzo closed the door, worries soothed over.

Until the next one came up.

Rin gave a deep sigh. That talk with Yuzu's dad sure gave her a shock. Suddenly talking about, _being safe._ Her face colours just a little thinking about it. She kinda overreacted at that, didn't she? But he caught her off guard! She was usually more composed than this. But she still smiled thinking about Shuzo claiming she was part of the family, a small skip in her step.

The park was coming into view, so Rin quickened her pace. She could make out a shape sitting on one of the swings, looking up after hearing her steps.

Yugo gave a large smile, jumping up from the swing and waving at her. "Riiiiinnnn!" He started sprinting towards her. Rin smiled at the sight.

He threw his arms around her neck in a hug as Rin caught him. Grinning, she wrapped her arms around him, lifting him up and using the momentum to spin in a circle, laughter erupting from both of them.

"You're late! What were you doing?" Yugo leaned back to look at her after she put him down again. He was still a little shorter than her.

She noticed he was still wearing the apple hoodie. It was a little big on him, the sleeves always slipping down his hands and covering them.

 _So cute_

She couldn't stop herself from pressing a kiss to his cheek, making his face turn a cute red colour. It matched the apples. "Sorry. Shuzo wanted to talk about something, nothing important." Rin pulled away, grabbing Yugo's hand and started walking deeper into the park.

Yugo gave her a puzzled look. "Well, if it wasn't anything important, it's fine I guess." He put his free hand in his pocket and swung their intertwined hands a little.

Rin smiled, giving his hand a squeeze. "Did you see my win against Yuzu today? Actually, I know you did, because you cheered so loud." She gave him a cheeky smile.

Yugo pouted at her. "I had to cheer both of you on! It wouldn't feel right otherwise."

"You sure you didn't cheer more for Yuzu than me?"

"I did not!"

"Stop pouting, you might give me ideas."

Yugo flushed scarlet at that. He brought up his free hand to hide his face behind his sleeve. "...Shut up."

Rin grinned, poking at one of his cheeks. The apples on that hoodie did match really well.


End file.
